Buffalo and Whitetail Deer Hunt 2008

David Johnson's Wyoming Nov 2008 IPY Ranch
More wild game than I’ve ever seen in a few short days!

Visualize 47000 acres of rolling wild hills, vast fields and rocky bluffs that provide perfect habitat for all sorts of western game. That’s a reasonable description of this better than most, hunting destination. Privately tucked behind the Devils Tower National Monument State Park, the ranch offers a hunter unparalleled opportunity to get close to north Americas largest big game trophy. Larger than Africa’s Cape buffalo, the North American Bison. This once numerous now recovering big game animal is not really a buffalo at all but a separate species altogether. This monster of the prairie towers over 5+ feet at his hump and a mature bull can weigh over 2500 pounds. Moving in groups with cows and calves or going it alone, the big bulls are a true North American trophy.

The Participants

Joel Miller, friend and hunting companion (see Alaskan Arctic Caribou Hunt), accompanied me on this years Wyoming adventure. Joel, a long time member of Arizona’s highway department, is also an accomplished guide in the wilds of Alaska. On several occasions Joel has had to shoot in self defense within feet as opposed to yards hungry pursuing Grizzlies. Our agreement to hunt the IPY ranch together started many miles further north.

Late September 2007, 10pm in a small tent 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska, 2 hunters sat almost totally wore out from the days activities. Outside the tent, the meat from 2 big Caribou Bulls hung from the camps make shift meat rack. Inside the tent, Caribou back-straps nicely cooked shared the tin plates with instant potato’s and a cup of hot soup. Not many meals will ever taste as good or be more appreciated. After dinner with a few minutes to relax, conversation focused on aspirations of hunts yet to come. Joel had mentioned that he had always wanted to hunt the American Bison. Since I was already scheduled to go to the IPY ranch in Nov 08, Joel seemed an obvious choice. I was not surprised when Joel jumped at the chance to go along.

Planning for the big day.

Preparation for a buffalo hunt begins with firearm selection and days/hours of practice. Bison are large, durable and potentially dangerous game, therefore increased need for proper caliber and bullet selection is appropriate. Joel and I had both chosen the classic 375 H&H with low power scopes. Designed as a minimum caliber for Africa’s most Dangerous Game, this rifle and load combination should be perfect for north Americas largest game animal. Shot placement regardless of caliber is still critical. Following up on a wounded bull is not something to be taken lightly. Also, with large caliber rifles and low power optics, close in shots are usually the standard. Unless you’re hunting with me. Have you ever heard of “Murphys Law”? If not let me define. "If there's more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way"; "Anything that can go wrong, will," Ok, sound familiar. This is what I plan for every time I go hunting. Me and Murphy are well acquainted. Let me explain through a few examples. A few years ago, I flew from Chicago to Buenos Aires Argentina with plans to hunt Red Stag in their winter time. Not only did the plane from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa choose to not complete the last leg of my journey resulting in an 11 hour bus ride from hell, but the weather was a balmy 100 degrees on noon the next day. My outfitter recommended that I bring wool clothes and long johns due to the expected cold winter weather. Ok, on the flip side of the planet, I was in the northern Arctic in October and instead of the normal COLD weather again, 72 degrees. Shorts and tee’s were the clothing of choice. You get where I’m going with this? Now I pack for anything.

Anyway, so Joel and I planned to meet up at the entrance to Devils Tower State Park. There is a nice gift shop called the trading post at the entrance which offers easy parking and a place to stop and buy a pop or use the pay phone. Cell coverage in this area can be spotty. Being prompt people, Joel and I hooked up and made our way through the park an onto the IPY ranch. Things look the same from 2 years ago when I hunted here last.

With deer hunting starting statewide on November 1st, our plan was to arrive on the 30th and hunt the buffalo on the first then move on to fill my deer tag over the following days. While driving to Wyoming, I was able to reach Joel in his truck and the C&A meat company team in Sundance. I usually try to keep C&A in the loop as to when we will be coming in. Buffalo are a lot of work and requires more time for processing. Sandy, one of C&A’s owners asked if we could PLEASE, PLEASE bring the buffalo in on the 30th as opposed to Nov first. She expected that nearly 100 deer would be arriving on the 1st and she would not have the room. With this new info, calls between Joel, I and the IPY ranch resulted in a quick change in plans. Joel and I would hunt buffalo the afternoon of our arrival in order to give C&A the ability to work through the night and get the two bulls processed before the flood of deer arrive. Hunting requires flexibility!


Upon arrival to the ranch’s bunk house, Joel and I unloaded our gear and changed into our hunting clothes. Rifles unpacked and ready to go, we split up and went looking for buffalo. On forty seven thousand acres even buffalo aren’t the easiest thing to find. George White (the ranch manager) and I set off in one direction and Joel driven by Jim Larson (guide extraordinaire) in another. After checking a number of normal hangouts and no buffalo in site we started across their vast tracks of prairie. Due to the high volume of spring rain, the prairie grass was tall, thick and healthy. It almost looked like a huge wheat field. In the distance we could make out the large black dot’s that often turn out to be grazing buffalo. Soon we were glassing a herd of 25 or so. Within the herd we were able to distinguish two good shooter bulls. George identified the larger bull as my shooter. I told George that since this was a meat bull for me, I would pass and reserve this bull for Joel, since he was going to mount his. My only challenge was that the aforementioned Murphey was alive and well and still with me. In my prior buffalo hunts the shots were well under 100 yards due to the forested areas where the bulls stayed out of site. With these bulls in the wide open, a long shot was the only shot. Using a 375H&H with 300 grain round nose bullets at 310 yards seemed less logical than say a 338 Lapua Magnum. Short of finding a gun store, I was going to need to make this work. Across the hood of the truck wasn’t going to work with the unpredictable nature of the wind and it’s impact on my site picture. Off hand was obviously not going to work, my high power rifle trained sitting position wasn’t stable enough, so prone was my only alternative. Finding a flat spot high enough to see over the prairie grass was the trick. After getting down and stable, using my sling I was able to settle the 4x power crosshair just behind the shoulder of my distant bull. Projecting the drop at 18 inches from zero was not much of a challenge due to the enormity of the bull. Waiting for a good broadside profile to ensure the first shot had the greatest affect is something I always strive for but sometimes don’t get. This time I got it, and the puff of dust off the rib cage just behind the front shoulder signaled a good hit. What surprised me was the way the bull bucked and started to trot off, similar to the way a whitetail reacts to an arrow shot. Reload immediately upon firing as taught by my African Guide Andres Fox, I was able to place a second and third shot on the bull now 350 yards and still going. The 4th shot missed and the 5th finally put the bull down for good. Was I glad to see him finally fall. I had only two rounds left. I surely didn’t expect to use more than two.. but 5 was a learning experience for me. Next time I’ll take no less than 10 rounds with me in the field, no matter what I’m hunting.

Joel and Jim soon pulled up alongside. George and Joel discussed the goal of shooting the bigger bull which was milling around my downed buff. Joel was up to the challenge and eased up to a bit of downed timber to use as a shooting rest. Using a Pre 64 Win 70 also in 375 H&H, and a 3-9 power scope, Joel began dropping rounds in on the bull. After a few high shots and emptying his gun, then using up my remaining ammo we were left with a mortally wounded bull that wouldn’t go down. George came to the rescue and provided his 338 for the final volley. With that we now had two bulls with over 5000 pounds of buffalo down. Time to get the sharp tools out and get working.

A nice surprise!

Buffalo hunting does not require a license or tag. These animals do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Wyoming DNR, but the deer on the property do. Therefore, in discussions with George White (the highly competent IPY Ranch Manager and an experienced hunter himself), he notified me that the ranch held a healthy whitetail deer population. He commented further that this area of the state even though it was a “Lottery Draw Only Area” I had a good chance of getting a tag. Heeding George’s recommendation, I submitted my name and application. As luck with have it, a few months later I received a letter from the Wyoming DNR office with a tag and license enclosed.

When the tag arrived I contacted George to let him know that I would be adding a whitetail deer to my bag. On my last visit I saw a very unique whitetail/mule deer mix. He had a wide whitetail rack but all the marking associated with a mule deer. For months I thought how great it would be to have such a mount. Only what I didn’t know was that last year a California deer hunter had the same idea and took him in the late season.

The Deer Hunt

After finding out that my cross breed was no longer on the menu, I set my goal at seeing as many deer on the ranch has possible and taking the best of what I saw. After talking with a number of the ranch hands, who typically spend every day addressing all aspects of ranch maintenance, I was able to determine relatively speaking where some of the best known big bucks were located. Since I had the only deer tag in our group, we set out with two of the ranches hunting trucks to see what we could scare up. I would expect that we saw over 150 deer during our visit. In retrospect, three of the deer we saw would qualify to me as shooters. There was one that I only saw for about 20 seconds while our vehicle climbed a rather steep hill. He was behind us a bit but nearly 600 yards away. He looked like a 12 point, big in body and tall in tines. Unfortunately he never gave me enough time to see him clearly. Looks like I may need to look for him two years from now when I go back. Anyway as we were motoring along this dirt road, Joel in the second vehicle spotted the deer in the photos rack standing above the prairie grass. His toot on the horn and signal for us to stop and check him out resulted in halting our caravan and scanning the tall prairie grass. As if busted, the entire group of about 8 deer stood up and casually started to feed and walk around. Not one of these deer seemed threatened by our arrival. We were about 180 yards away, with a creek and low cow fence line between us. Even after we exited the vehicles and started glassing the area, they stayed and didn’t move off. I had taken my Remington 700 Sendero with its 28 inch stainless fluted barrel and pulled down the legs on the Harris Bi-Pod attached to the forward sling stud. Plopping it on the vehicles hood and focusing in the New Bushnell Elite 6500 4-30 power scope, I was able to carefully inspect the rack on this impressive deer. The group now forming behind me had determined that I wasn’t going to shoot this deer and were now discussing where to go next. It was quite the surprise when the rifle suddenly went off and the buck spun around, went 20 feet and fell over. The Hornady 178 grain A-Max hand load in 300 Remington Short Action Ultra Magnum had not only done its job, but there was no need for the follow up shot I was about ready to deliver. I continue to be impressed by this bullets accuracy and terminal performance.

The balance of the trip was more labor than hunting. You’ve probably heard that the phrase that the “REAL work starts after you pull the trigger”. Boy is that right!

Well all, that’s the exciting part of the trip.. The rest was a lot of packing, carrying and driving. 18 hours straight through from Sundance WY to Grayslake IL. I had a load of frozen meet and hides in a UHaul Trailer that needed to see their way into my freezer and that of my taxidermist. So no time to stop and snooze… If you’re still reading, thanks and you have my appreciation. More trips to come, next year the excitement of Africa returns with a night hunt for 2 wild and crazy Hyena.. stay tuned..